Mikel Merino: The answer at left 8, or just more floor raising depth?

Taking a deep dive into the Arsenal target's stats

Arsenal appear to be close to getting their second new signing of the season over the line. They are close to agreeing to terms with Real Sociedad for Spanish midfielder Mikel Merino.

Merino has been on the radar for a good amount of teams and has gotten a good number of people excited about what he can bring to Arsenal. He is very highly thought of in Spain (even I don’t fully share the view) and came away from Adam’s film review looking very good (it is worth a read/watch if you haven’t yet).

Over the last three seasons (actually probably more like 4-5) he has put up solid numbers that don’t quite back up the hype that comes with his reputation and the multi-thread tactical breakdowns.

This is a great opportunity to dive deep into the stats and try to get a better understanding of the player. Let’s go on this journey together.

Duels, Duels, Duels

"When I lose a duel, I am upset," - Mikel Arteta

This quote has taken on a bit of a life of its own. In the context when this was said, it is more about not accepting losing little things because little things can have big impacts, which is not what Mikel Arteta expects from his team. He wants them to compete and look to win at everything they do, and if they do lose not to like it and fuel them the next time they go out.

However, it probably sheds some light on his thinking because it was also the first example that came to his mind and with the recent signings Arsenal have made lately, it is part of an illustrative pattern.

Duels matter to Arteta (and to a lesser extent they do show a weak but positive correlation with winning points), and Arteta wants a team that wins as much of them as possible.

This is probably not how it happened, but if you just go and sort players by duels won last season, this is the name that jumps to the top of the list.

This isn’t a flash in the pan either, he has shown up in the top 20 each of the last five seasons, ranking first, third, fourteenth, twelfth, and fifth. You have to go back to 2018-19 to find him outside of that and he was still 33rd.

The guy contests a lot of duels and comes away on top very consistently.

One of the more unusual ways he shows up on this list is that he is pretty even amongst the categories for duels. A lot of the players on this list have one type of duel that they excel in, but Merino ranks well in attacking duels, defensive duels, and aerial duels, this is consistent across his career as well.

Out of possession, his ability to win the ball back looks good. He has excellent coverage for the full field, leaning a bit more into the duel portion (unsurprisingly) than being a player who will jump a passing lane to intercept or block a pass.

Overall for his senior career, he has rated as an above-average player at ball-winning. I don’t have a ton more to say other than this looks perfectly acceptable and there was not anything in the video or my time watching him that made me uncomfortable or question the numbers.

The only hint here is that he looks to be very aggressive and can be a foul-heavy player. That’s not the worst trait when he is up the pitch but it is something to note.

His on-ball attacking duels are fairly high but this is probably the weakest of the three types of duels here for Merino. The volume is above average but he isn’t getting the same value added with his ability to move the ball with his feet that he does winning it with his head or off of the opposing team.

The biggest red flag here is that he is losing the ball more often than you would expect for the areas where he is touching the ball. This is most likely driven by his agressivness in looking to move the ball forward and a willingness to take on his defender.